How has Kansas City gone from 2–14 to 6–0? The new brain trust of Andy Reid and John Dorsey has made smart personnel moves, adapted to the talent on hand and lightened the mood. Watch out, Denver!

Kansas City’s reshaped defense sends players from all directions at the quarterback—safety Eric Berry got Terrelle Pryor on Sunday for one of the Chiefs’ 10 sacks. (Peter Aiken/Getty Images)

Tammy Reid must have hugged 30 of them. Coaches, players and front office men streamed down the red-carpeted corridor from the field to the home locker room, each reaching out for a high five or an embrace with the giddy coach’s wife/team mom in the pink jersey and blue jeans.

This is the closest NFL teams get to the joy of a homecoming victory: For the first time in seven years the Chiefs defeated the Raiders at Arrowhead, 24-7. Last down the pathway came the suit-clad Clark Hunt—the suddenly brilliant 48-year-old team owner who hired Tammy’s husband, Andy, and his friend, John Dorsey, and then promptly took a back seat on this ride to an undefeated start. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and sang out:

There were some personnel changes, but Andy Reid and the new K.C. brain trust knew enough to keep playmaking wideout Dwayne Bowe. (William Purnell/Icon SMI)

“6-0! What do you know?!”

It was nine months ago, on Jan. 13, when Dorsey, the 53-year-old former NFL linebacker, and Reid, the 55-year-old former college lineman, sat down together in the coaches’ conference room at One Arrowhead Drive in Kansas City and broke down the Chiefs’ roster. Hired two weeks apart—first Reid as coach, then Dorsey as general manager—they had worked together on the Green Bay staff from 1992 to ’98, when Reid was an assistant coach and Dorsey a scout. They brought to later roles the lessons learned with the Packers, and soon agreed upon a way to repair a franchise that finished 2-14 in 2012. The early schedule has been kind—Chiefs opponents have a combined winning percentage of .303—and they’ve yet to play that other undefeated team in the AFC West, the Broncos, but it’s difficult to dispute the early results.

“I believe the greatest combinations of general managers and coaches are when guys believe philosophically in the same thing and they can check their egos at the door and work for the common goal,” Dorsey told me on Saturday. “Whenever you have that, you can do some really good things.”

He and Reid agreed on several necessary personnel measures—a new quarterback, a defensive-scheme shift and an influx of speed. But before that, there were fences to mend with players, media and fans. Dorsey brought in his player leaders, one by one, and shared with them his vision. “When we first met, I felt like I knew him for a while,” says fourth-year safety Eric Berry. “He cracked a few jokes and told me the plan. I immediately jumped on board.”

Part of the plan included signing pending free-agent wide receiver Dwayne Bowe to a five-year, $56-million contract, completed less than two months after Dorsey arrived. “It was so cool. He was like a father figure,” Bowe says of their first meeting. “He told me how proud he was of me and said ‘Let’s get this show on the road and win some games.’ ”

Speed—embodied by Dexter McCluster—is of the essence on both sides of the ball in ’13. (Ed Zurga/AP)

The last regime didn’t have this sort of relationship with its players. Former general manager Scott Pioli, fired after four seasons with the club, drafted or otherwise signed more than a dozen 2013 Week 1 starters. But he also created a “culture of fear,” as two independent player agents described it.

“Guys were afraid to take chances because they were afraid to make mistakes, from the players to the coaches to the scouts,” one agent said. “When Dorsey and Reid came in, you saw them mending fences.”

Pioli declined an interview request for this story.

Beginning in OTAs this season, Reid pulled off the remarkable feat of increasing contact in practice, with players eventually tackling to the ground in training camp, and not just avoiding mutiny but inspiring trust. He asked the players to think of the Chiefs as a football family, and stressed the positives over negatives as he moved on from an unpleasant ending to his 14-year run as Eagles coach without a Super Bowl title.

“They made it clear that they were going to bring a certain kind of work ethic in practice that was going to be just like games,” running back Dexter McCluster says. “The way they approach coaching it makes you want to go out there and give everything you have. Coach has a road map, and all we have to do is follow.”

Often, the things Reid and Dorsey didn’t do spoke as loudly as what they did. Pioli and Todd Haley, the head coach he eventually fired near the end of the 2011 season, had a running joke that rubbed some the wrong way: If they disapproved of an action of a staffer or a player, they would joke, “That’s 2-14 right there.” They were referring to the season before Pioli took over, a 2-14 campaign in 2008 that ended with the departure of longtime general manager Carl Peterson and coach Herm Edwards. Ironically, after injuries ravaged the roster early in the 2012 season, Pioli and his final head coach, Romeo Crennel, finished 2-14.

Here’s an idea: Get the ball in the hands of Jamaal Charles. He’s being targeted more in the passing game and already has more touchdowns than all of last season. (Kyle Rivas/Getty Images)

“He wasn’t doing it to bring us down,” says McCluster of Haley’s joke. “He was trying to make us better. But coach Reid and Mr. Dorsey really take a different approach.”

And it’s an exceedingly optimistic one. Dorsey is a self-described “glass-half-full” guy—playfully antagonistic, but at his core desperately hopeful. His sister’s son, Kansas State wide receiver Curry Sexton (who still gets called “soft” by his uncle despite his accomplishments), recalls a regular-season game during the 1996 Packers’ Super Bowl season when Dorsey was so nervous he left the stadium in the second quarter and hurried to a local church to pray for three quarters. Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie, a former Packers executive, fondly remembers searching the room for Dorsey at key points in games and finding him in a corner, unable to watch from his box seat.

“That’s him,” McKenzie says. “An oddball.”

Dorsey may be that, but the plan that he, Reid and several others conjured to save the Chiefs makes all the sense in the world now that the team is 6-0.

“They said, ‘What happened last year, that’s done and over with,’ ” McCluster says. “ ‘This is the 2013 Chiefs, and we’re going to win, and this is how we’re going to do it.’ ”

* * *

Reid and Dorsey wanted a quarterback who limited mistakes, managed the game and was a calming locker-room presence. Alex Smith, unwanted in San Fran, was the ideal man for the job. (Peter Aiken/Getty Images)

Dorsey and Reid’s plan had three elements.

1. Find a quarterback

And it didn’t have to be Peyton Manning, whom Pioli had coveted a year before, when Manning was on the market. Reid envisioned a West Coast offense with pistol and spread elements from the college game. But the quarterback needn’t have a big arm; he only needed to manage the game, keep a talented defense well-rested and get the ball to one under-utilized playmaker: running back Jamaal Charles. Niners quarterback Alex Smith, on the trade block after being replaced in San Francisco by Colin Kaepernick, was perfect. He also showed poise in off-field adversity, never flinching as a teammate or a team spokesman even as the younger quarterback took his job. That was important to Dorsey, who sought a calming locker room presence.

“When I talk to guys I always ask myself, ‘Is this a good locker room guy?’ ” Dorsey says. “And Alex has got those qualities. He’s very steady. The good ones have it. Guys naturally gravitate to him without him advertising that he’s the guy.”

Sounds like Packers Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers.

“It’s not fair to compare the two,” Dorsey says, “but Aaron’s personality and Alex’s personality are very similar.”

The Chiefs reached a deal with San Francisco on Feb. 27, sending a 2013 second-round pick and a 2014 conditional pick to the Niners for Smith. They got a leader, a gym rat (Dorsey says Smith leads quarterback film sessions into the late night hours on his off day) and a checkdown auteur. After five games, Smith had targeted receivers more than 20 yards downfield fewer times than 30 other quarterbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. Charles already has nearly as many catches, more receiving yards and twice as many targets as he had all of least season, with 33 receptions on 49 targets for 300 yards through six games. His five catches for 50 yards led the team in Sunday’s win.

Rather than throw out the 3-4 scheme, defensive coordinator Bob Sutton adjusted to the talent on hand; Tamba Hali and the rest of the D have responded. (Peter Aiken/Getty Images)

2. Keep the 3-4, throw out the playbook

Crennel favored an old-school 3-4 defense, asking his defensive ends to be two-gap players. The emphasis was not on getting upfield, but on standing your ground and occupying two blockers while linebackers did the work. The nosetackle, in this case young Dontari Poe, drafted by Pioli, was asked to do something similar: command double- and triple-teams. And as the offense floundered with Matt Cassel and Brady Quinn at quarterback, the defense regressed from a 12th-ranked unit in 2011 to 25th in 2012. Schematic changes to go along with the offensive revamp were necessary, but Dorsey and Reid decided not to raze and rebuild a roster suited for Reid’s favorite, the 4-3.

“He saw what personnel he had,” Dorsey says. “All good coaches adjust to what kind of personnel they have. He thought this was a pretty good defense, so he went out and hired a 3-4 expert in former Jets coordinator Bob Sutton. Now Bob’s done a marvelous job on the defensive side of the ball.”

How marvelous? Sutton’s defense has already eclipsed the 27 sacks Crennel’s unit had last season. With 10 sacks on Sunday against the Raiders, the Chiefs are at a league-best 31. He’s doing it with varied blitz looks and disguised coverages—Kansas City has logged 13 QB hits or hurries from defensive backs in six games, compared to eight all of last season. And the gap-shooting defensive line play preferred by Sutton and his players has resulted in breakout seasons for Poe (4.5 sacks) and Tyson Jackson, the former LSU end and former No. 3 overall draft choice who was miscast as a two-gapper as Pioli’s first pick as Chiefs GM in 2009.

“We’re doing a lot of different things,” Berry says. “More blitzes. More attacking. It’s what we try to do: put pressure on offenses so we can make plays.”

In other words, be the hammer, not the nail.

3. Restock the roster

On Aug. 31, NFL teams had until 6 p.m. ET to reduce their rosters from 75 players to 53. It was the culmination of a long summer for most teams, and the final wave of roster moves before the regular season. For some it meant the weekend’s work was over—Jets coach Rex Ryan notably took the day off to attend his son’s college football game. The Chiefs staff, however, was just getting started. As part of the process that saw the bottom 30 players chopped off the roster, Dorsey and director of player personnel Chris Ballard met to plan what became, essentially, a re-draft.

Marcus Cooper (31), released by the 49ers before the season, is one of the “Magnificent Seven”—players picked up after cut day who’ve made major contributions in Kansas City. (Peter Aiken/Getty Images)

They identified a handful of expendable players on the 53 and built a board consisting of non-Chiefs who would likely become free agents on cut day. When waivers came around on Sept. 1, they struck seven times, signing three former Seahawks—cornerback Ron Parker, tight end Sean McGrath and defensive tackle Jaye Howard—plus erstwhile 49ers corner Marcus Cooper and wide receiver Chad Hall, Browns linebacker James-Michael Johnson and Packers linebacker Dezman Moses. The moves raised eyebrows on a typically quiet day in the NFL. Now those players are turning heads, with all but Howard getting significant playing time.

“That’s something we haven’t done after any cut day I can remember—go out and find free agents who can contribute,” says Mitch Holthus, longtime radio voice of the Chiefs. “We’re calling them the Magnificent Seven.”

Parker came up with a pivotal sack-strip of Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo in the season’s second game, and Cooper, a 2013 seventh-round pick of the Niners, scored a touchdown on a fumble recovery in a win versus the Giants. Cooper also started Sunday for the injured Brandon Flowers, breaking up five passes (though giving up Oakland’s only touchdown).

The common denominator between the two former scrap heap DBs? Speed. Cooper runs the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds flat. Parker: 4.35.

Athleticism was part of the rationale for drafting Eric Fisher No. 1 overall in Reid’s and Dorsey’s first draft in April. Yet he has become, in these five months, the lone blemish of the new regime’s short and successful record in Kansas City. As a right tackle, the Central Michigan product has allowed at least one sack in three games, and against Oakland he was bulldozed from the very first play, which ended in Sio Moore wrapping up Smith. Dorsey says if he had to do it over again he’d pick the same guy, but like the season, the rookie is a work in progress.

Give Dorsey and Reid the benefit of the doubt on Fisher. After all, who can argue with 6-0?

From 2–14 to this? What a difference a year makes. (Jeff Moffett/Icon SMI)

Denver sucks, Chiefs are shutting out teams that put alot of points on the board and total offense. Look at the Eagles #2 behind Denver, shutting them to 16 points. Dallas to 16 points. Wait will KC turns on the offense, wow. Sorry manning your going to be cold shivering and getting sacked like crazy!!! There is a reason Chiefs have 7 Pro bowlers maybe 8.

By the stats as facts Denver is #1 offense, Philly is #2 KC held Philly to 16 points, and KC has been working all season on a plan for Denver so lucky if Denver does score. Wonder if Manning can withhold 5-7 sacks, hmmmmm. Here are some stats I like to see...

@ Robert Klemko, Your article was very good for the most part except for one thing. You made a mistake on saying they rebuilt or re-stocked the roster. They obviously did not complete the task right 100%. They forgot to plug the many holes on offense. There is no strong aggressive play makers except Jamal Charles and maybe Donny Avery if were lucky to see him perform. We have no protection and no powerful players. I am sick and tired of people saying "Kansas City Chief's and Royals are young and rebuilding". Please people how many times have we heard these excuses. They been rebuilding for years. Maybe it's time to admit failures. The Chief's and Royals can not continue to make the rebuilding excuse and expect to compete at a major league level. The Chief's and Royals have made so many excuses for years, and I look at other baseball and football teams from 1990-2013 and see less change and drama that Kansas City Sports Organizations have had. It's like the KC Curse.

@ Robert Klemko, the guy who wrote this article. Let me give you a dose of reality. The Chief's are no threat to the Denver Broncos. Peyton Manning is a hall of fame QB. He is either @ the best or 2nd best of his career. He has very much aggressive and talented players on offense. He is throwing almost 400-500 yards per game. The Broncos are scoring on average of 35-53 points a game. They are a high caliber offense that just attacks. The Chief's are lucky to be 6-0 because we have a softy schedule so far. That is going based off 2012 Statistics. We have new young talented players who are all excited and passionate and hungry to win. But here is the reality you seem to miss. The Chief's suck horribly on offense. The Protection ya is sucks big time on offense. This is a concern. Believe me it will catch up with them . Like I said they are lucky to be 6-0. You can not just expect Jamal Charles to carry the offense. He is the best running back right now. But Jamal Charles will get worn out. I get so sick and tired of people always putting emphasis on 1 player. It's a team work and it takes every player doing their part. Yes 1 player like Charles can make a difference and is important. But if you expect Charles to carry the offense on his back its gonna bite them hard. The other concern is Dewayne Bowe. Bowe is not consistent in his talent and his attitude has gotten him in trouble in the past. He has trouble running the routes right and seems to not get that down. He is a talented young man but until he learns to play WR right he will not be consistent. They should have traded him before the season started. That's managements fault. Logic and Smartness would say get rid of him during roster clean up. They re did the roster when new coaches and management was hired. But they should have checked the film and seen he was not consistent the least 2 years. These are the major issues with offense. Now Alex Smith is both mature and consistent. But he has guys in front of him that have corks up their butts. This is the bottom line and I'm right cause this is fact if you learn to pay more attention. Yes we have a good defense. But if you really see we do not look good. Were just lucky. You watch you will see I am right. Good Luck with your facts dude.

How did Indy go from 2nd pick in draft to playoffs or Tampa Bay coach from coach of the yr to fired from one season to the next. Saints looked awful last yr, looking good this yr. Era of 1/2 dozen of teams dominating league is long gone in this salary cap/revenue sharing league. A coach or GM or player here and there and you can go from the bottom to the top pretty fast these days and vice versa. Parity is the new norm

There is something to be said for going 6-0 to start a season (just ask Josh McDaniels). All kidding aside, while KC has been impressive, they are not doing anything revolutionary. KC has only scored more than 28 points once this year. Denver scores 35-40 points even when not on their A-Game which forces teams to abandon the run. Let's be realistic here, the Chiefs are not a team geared toward keeping up in a shootout.

In my opinion this is a great article and the real Chief's fans should love it. But personally, I can take no joy in it. I guess I am hating because they won the 6th game by winning over the Raiders. Anyway, I forgive you for doing a masterful job telling a very good story about a very good team.. Maybe, you will be able to write such a story about My Raiders one day before I leave this earth. I do hope so. Love, your Grandma

Anyone who is familiar with today's Chiefs will ask the obvious question:

What happens when the Chiefs' over-dependence on and Charles' over-use leads to him breaking down / wearing out, as has happened in the past? Another chink in the Chief armor is at qb ... good enough not to lose games, but a Brady / Brees / Manning etc who can take over a game when the running game is snuffed and the D is having a bad game? I think not.

And their schedule is misleading as well. 8 games of nothing more than borderline tomato cans, maybe with the exception of Tennessee.

Has Reid performed a near-miracle in KC? Absolutely. But is this a team that can win a championship?

At least when your gm is a false prophet like pioli, and you're 2-14, there's nowhere to go but up with Andy Reid and Dorsey.

Congrats to Andy Reid for changing a losing culture into a competitive one. At least Clark Hunt isn't ripping off his fans any more.

As a Packer fan I enjoy the connections between the two teams in the front office. Also the NFL is a better league when the "Chefs" are successful. Also who can't like a term like "The Magnificent Seven"? Harkens back the days of the "Four Horsemen" and "The Steel Curtin".

@JohnWhite The Eagles turned the ball over 5 times against the Chiefs who managed to score only 26 points. I'll go out on a limb and predict Denver will not turn the ball over 5 times. The Broncos blew out Philly 52-20 and Peyton Manning didn't even play in the 4th quarter.

The Broncos also lead the league in fewest sacks allowed (0.8 per game) so predicting 5-7 sacks is a stretch.

Denver is AVERAGING 44 points per game and has scored 82 points more than any other team. Say your above average defense is able to hold Denver to 30 points I still wouldn't like the chances of KC's offense to score more than that. Basically, everything KC does well on defense is something Denver excels at on offense.

@JeremiahFarris It's a 1st year offense where over half the components are completely new to the team (and the ones that were already on the team still have to deal with new components, such as Bowe, McCluster and Charles dealing with an all new QB group, and for Charles a new FB lead blocking for him), with a new scheme, with all new coaches and an all new front office. Things'll take longer to mesh on offense than on defense. Deal with it. "But they're doing terrible!" No crap. If the defense weren't playing consistently good to a higher level (like they've only done once or twice a year for the past three years) and they weren't winning games in large part due to that, no one would be freaking out about the offense needing time to develop chemistry and trust in one another. But since the defense (and ST for that matter) are doing excellently, fans like you are flipping out that the offense isn't seeing immediately great production, as well. Get over it. This isn't the best they'll ever be on the offensive side of the ball. They'll get better.

@JeremiahFarris Who exactly has Denver played that has a great to excellent defense? They pulled the Ravens as their first game when have their defensive players were gutted in the offseason and they're only now showing signs of getting back to performing at a "Ravens Quality Standard" on defense. The Giants defense has sucked with JPP dealing with back issues and hardly generating a pass rush. The Raiders are steadily improving after already starting off a little bit better than people expected, but are still a middling defense. The Cowboys were hamstrung with injuries by the time Denver pulled them and the Eagles are the Eagles and the Jaguars are the Jaguars. Denver's putting up huge points because they have yet to face a defense that truly challenged them. Playing against a team with a Top 12 defense will surely make the score more reasonable. As for KC they've faced a couple tougher defenses (Cowboys pre-injury bug, Titans, and Raiders after a little more improvement as a unit), and their anemic offense still found ways to overcome with the D/ST's help. Denver's defense is a joke right now. By the time the two teams meet in Week 11 KC should (fingers crossed) have shown greater signs of developing as a team to overcome Von Miller and start harassing the bad defense behind him.

@rgrandchamp The Chiefs have more than doubled the number of points they have given up 152 PF and 65 PA. No other team has that kind of stat. I am not a Chief's fan, but that is just plain getting it done.

@rgrandchamp No, the Chiefs aren't built to keep up in a shootout, but they are built for winning in the postseason. Oh how quickly Denver fans have forgotten how bad Manning is in cold weather. Manning has so far covered up Denver's awful defense, but at some point that defense is going to be exposed. The fewest points Denver has given up all year is 19, to the JAGUARS! What happens when the weather gets cold, and that high-flying aerial attack isn't as high-flying?

You are right, KC won't win a shootout. But guess what? Thanks to their defense, they're never going to be in a shootout. They'll lose games because the offense gets shut down, but they aren't going to give up 35 a game. I'm not saying the Chiefs are going to beat the Broncos, but they certainly aren't going to rack up 40 points on this defense.

@rgrandchamp is missing the scheme of the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs secondary can consistently keep receivers so completely covered that plays don't develop. While Denver allowed the Cowboys 500 passing yards and 40+ points, the Chiefs held them to 16 points. The same thing was done with other gun slingers and will continue to be done by this elite defense.

The NFL has become obsessed with the gunslinging quarterback. But a properly built defense can render the best QB inert. There isn't a shoot out if the secondary delays the release of the ball an additional 2-3 seconds for the monsters that KC has on their roster to destroy the line and get to the quarterback. This is the strategy that could ultimately lead to the Broncos and Seahawks downfall as it already has the Cowboys, Giants and Eagles.

For those that argue that the winning percentage of Chiefs opponents is only 30%, 1/3 of those defeats have come from the only undefeated teams left in the NFL. And the other undefeated team, the Broncos, have yet to face a real Defense while the Chiefs have been facing real Offenses.

@4aces Fortunately (or unfortunately) you play the schedule that is set before the season starts. And checking the NFL schedule, the other 6-0 team has faced five of the same opponents. Ravens and Titans are the two teams each other has not played, and both are 3-3.

So Denver has a schedule that is just as weak as Kansas City's. But no one is questioning the Bronco's dominance. I guess we will just have to see in November.

@BigGil@JeremiahFarris So Dallas gets a pass for the Denver game because they were "hamstrung with injuries" but Denver's does not despite being without half of it's starters including their defensive captain for most of the game (not counting Miller/Bailey)? How bout a little consistency in your analysis. Surely Denver's defensive stats will improve now that Miller is back and they get to play KC's offense twice.

Denver is putting up huge points because they may be one of the all time great offenses, on pace to exceed the 07 Patriots and the 99 Rams. I'll believe it's possible to stop their offense if it actually happens.

@Huskersippi@rgrandchamp I just don't buy that. No one has held them under 35. It will likely take that to beat them against a good offense. A mediocre one such as KC has you better hope they can hold them under 21. Not good odds. Denver gives up very few sacks, turnovers, and leads the league in 3rd down pct.

Also to the comment about Denver's "horrible" defense I would offer this. When you are #1 against the run yet #30 against the pass is that a reflection of talent/scheme or what opposing offenses are forced to do to counter the massive number of points Denver is scoring on offense? They have a competent enough defense, and will be more formidable with Von Miller back in.

@JamesMcDonald@rgrandchamp First, tell me more about these "real offenses" the Chiefs have faced? Philadelphia hung around that game despite 5 turnovers. The Denver/Philly game was over in the 3rd quarter.

Second, does Alex Smith have a 500 yard game in him? Even that wasn't enough for Dallas.

Denver's D (without Miller) has not been on KC's level but they didn't need to be. I don't know there is any defense out there capable of shutting down Denver's receivers for an entire game. Too many weapons. You might be able to take a couple away, but we all know Manning will just find someone else. He also gets the ball away quicker than anyone after the snap leading to very few sacks.

@rgrandchamp@George ... who was a starter for five seasons up til this season, had a much better passer rating last year, and has a history of kicking the Chiefs' @$$. It probably would've benefited the Chiefs more to face Locker.

It appears Manning DID have a bad day yesterday, clown. He only threw for 2 TDs, fumbled twice, threw a pick-6

and they only put up 35 and won by 16 :D

And the chefs so far have played nothing but mediocre tomato cans - possibly the easiest schedule in the league. I honestly think that they might win the division based on their ridiculous schedule - that is of course, until Charles breaks down or their current "don't lose the game for us" qb does exactly that.

@rgrandchamp@Huskersippi When they know that the other team is gonna have to pass just to try to keep up with their scoring, and, despite knowing they're gonna pass, they still end up performing poorly enough to warrant the 30th ranking in pass defense, that's pretty bad.

@George You kinda missed the point with the "What if you don't have much of a D (like _enver) and your QB has a bad day? I guess if you are lucky, you're playing the 0-6 Jags..." comment.

You see, that comment meant that Denver was very lucky that despite having a bad defense, Peyton Manning had a bad day in a game where they were facing an offense so terrible (Jacksonville) that even Denver's bad D couldn't let that game get too out of hand.

With the way their D is playing (unless Miller alone can make them do a complete 180), they would be a little more screwed if Peyton had a bad day and it wasn't against the all around worst team in the NFL (Jacksonville).

Peyton having a bad day (by Peyton Manning standards) but still putting up good numbers because he's playing a terrible, terrible team isn't all that impressive.

@George Chiefs and Broncos have had basically the same schedule. Played 5 of the same teams in 6 weeks. Only difference is Baltimore who are 3-3.

I do think the Broncos have a better offense, no doubt. But the argument about weak schedules is, well just weak.

I'll say the Broncos are a better team right now but this crap about strength of schedule is just non-sense. They have played basically the same teams. And of course a team like Denver is going to have a larger margin of victory if they are a better offensive team. Defensive teams don't put up big numbers when they win. They hold their opponents to low scores, which the Chiefs have done. No opponent has put up more than 17 points on the Chiefs, every team Denver has faced has put up 17 or more points on them.

@George dude what's with u and tomato cans?and seriously, you're a chargers fan and you're gonna talk???who have the chiefs beat?how about the titans and raiders,teams that beat the chargers. probably gonna be a third one again after this week too,in the Texans..oh and I also seem to recall the chiefs having a much easier time against the eagles than the chargers.

@George Give Alex Smith some time to get used to his receivers. He's never played with them, and he's just starting to realize that Dwayne Bowe is someone you just need to throw the ball to and let him make the play. He's like Boldin, a guy who won't get a lot of separation but who will go get the ball and shield it from the defender.

That said, the rest of the Chiefs receiving corps needs to get open. I don't like their routes more than anything, with very few picks and mostly deeper routes. I think Smith would be better served with more crossing routes, quick outs, picks, digs, etc.

Saying the Chiefs haven't played anyone is a bit silly, especially when adding their combined record includes the losses the Chiefs handed them. Dallas is certainly a good team, as is Tennessee. Considering the Chiefs handled Jacksonville MUCH better than the exalted Broncos, exactly what is your point? Why to you put Denver up so high when the Chiefs handily beat the Cowboys and the Broncos barely beat them after giving up 48 points?

@George Fun fact: When calculating strength of schedule based on the six weeks already played Denver has an easier schedule thus far than Kansas City. That means that the one opponent the two teams do not share as a common opponent through six weeks for Denver was a weaker opponent that Kansas City's. Additionally, Denver's point differential for the five common opponents is only seven points greater than Kansas City's. That's less than two points per game on average that you're beating average opponents by. Don't sleep on the Chiefs.

@George You're a goof. Our roster is stacked with great running backs. If Charles did fail, we'd have Cyrus Gray, an extremely talented back with loads of potential. And if shit really hit the fan, we could just play Dexter McCluster at running back. I'm not much a fan of Knile Davis, but he, too, is a legitimate competitor.

In the end, people like you will always be down on the Chiefs. If we went to the Superbowl and won, it would be somehow a fluke. If we did it again next season, it would still be a fluke. But what it comes down to is this: we can beat any team you throw at us. The fans of the teams strewn like corpses across the NFL are expected to be bitter afterwards. Ex: You.